"Jews should be divided into 2 categories, Zionists and supporters of assimilation" – wrote in 1935 Reinhard Heydrich, 1 of the creators of the Holocaust. "The Zionists profess a strictly racial concept and by emigrating to Palestine support the construction of their own judaic state. [...] They are accompanied by our best wishes with authoritative support”[1].
According to the category proposed by Heinrich, the creation of the State of Israel was so a triumph of Zionism over the pursuit of assimilation. At the same time, however, conventional anti-Semitic perceptions of Jews were complicated as people without roots. He was. view Martina Heidegger, erstwhile in 1939 he urged to examine the "predition of Jewry to planetary crime"[2]:
"Jews by their extraordinary gift of reckoning the longest are already “lived” according to the racial rule [Rasseprinzip], and so most powerfully defend themselves against its unlimited application. The breeding device is not derived from “life” itself, but from machination. What drives this planning is simply a complete resuscitation[3] nations by harnessing them into equally built and evenly carved equipment of all existence. The suppression goes hand in hand with the auto-alienation of nations—the failure of history, i.e. the failure of areas of settlement for Being."
Behind these wordings stands the philosophical opposition to the fullness of life in a peculiar planet and the negation of spiritual-historical foundation by the perception of the full "external reality" as the object of manipulation and sources of profit. What, though, erstwhile a supposedly devoid of roots, cosmopolitan group begins to grow roots? In the case of Zionism, like stated In 2015, French philosopher Alain Finkielkraut: "Jews have now taken the root path".
In this statement, it is easy to catch the echo expressed by Heidegger that all the key and large things request to be established in his homeland “from blood and earth.” The irony is that the anti-Semitic slogans about the deficiency of rooting are invoked to justify Zionism. While anti-Semitism accuses Jews of having no roots, Zionism seeks to remedy this alleged disadvantage.
It is not surprising, therefore, that so many conservative anti-Semites inactive support Israel's expansion today. The problem is, of course, that this expansion, under Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, means settlement and annexation of the West Bank of Jordan – increasing roots in a place for hundreds of years inhabited by another people.
A akin problem arises with the divergent interpretations of the conventional judaic saying “For next year in Jerusalem!” which falls at the end of the seder (a ceremonial meal eaten at the beginning of Passover). How explains Dara Lind in an article for Vox:
“Many Jews powerfully convinced of the weight of the judaic state see “For the next year in Jerusalem!” as an expression of the request to defend Jerusalem and Israel in their present form. Others think of “Jerusalem” mentioned during the Seder as the perfect of what Jerusalem and Israel could be—for them, “For the next year in Jerusalem!” is simply a prayer to make Israel closer to this ideal. “Jerusalem” can besides simply be a general symbol of a certain utopia, and “For the next year in Jerusalem!” can be a provision for next year’s efforts for peace on earth.”
These versions reproduce transcendent and empirical duality. Jerusalem is either an abstract spiritual place of salvation, or a real city filled with people, buildings and spiritual monuments. It is not surprising, therefore, that any Muslim fundamentalists follow the “transcendentalists” view, for which worship of a real city is blasphemy. In the mediate of the first decade of the 21st century, then Iran's president Mahmud Ahmadinejad organised a conference calling for the demolition of the State of Israel, at which received respective befriended rabbis “transcendentalists”. It was a reversal of Heydrich's view: Jews among us are fine, the State of Israel is unacceptable.
However, there is simply a third, highly dangerous explanation of the phrase “For next year in Jerusalem!” which is simply a synthesis of the 2 mentioned above. Those who confess it say, “Now that we have Jerusalem, we can demolish Palestinian buildings next year and rebuild the Biblical Temple in the place where the Al-Aksa mosque is now.” The fight for Jerusalem thus becomes a sacred action. Even the crime committed on the occasion does not blame its perpetrators (in their own eyes), as they form a new, legitimate order. It's like that old gag where the villagers brag that there are no cannibals anymore, due to the fact that “the last 1 ate yesterday.”
But let us be clear. utilizing the Jews as victims to justify expansion, Israelis who advocate annexing cynically exploit the Holocaust memory. Those who express unconditional support for Israel besides support the current Israeli government, fighting against liberal opposition, against settlement and expansion. Yet this expansionism is the main origin of anti-Semitism in the modern world.
Among the countries of expression full support for Israel there are Germany, where many people from the right inform against “imported anti-SemitismIt’s okay. ” The presumption is that any fresh wave of anti-Semitism in Germany is not a German phenomenon, but a consequence of Muslim immigration. Why, then, did so many young left-wing people in the West refuse to express solidarity with Israel after the October Hamas assassination? Why Among Young Americans orbit on TikToku Letter to America Bin Laden's Osamas?
To say they're just sympathetic to Hamas is to go easy. What unites many people active in pro-Palestinian demonstrations is simply a broader view of how abroad policy and the United States military apparatus and their allies in the West are subordinated to the large Capital and its exploitation of the remainder of the world. Sometimes only a thin line separates the sincere disappointment of capitalism from the “anti-capitalistic” populism like Bin Laden’s letter.
Many liberals supported Israel, while expressing concern about the number of civilians – especially children – killed in Gaza. Compassion for the Palestinians as victims is growing, and their right to defy expansionist intentions is becoming clearer. But how can they defy without becoming anti-Semites? This is simply a question only silence and embarrassment will answer.
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[1] Höhne Heinz, Dead Skull Order, in the translation by Sławomir Kędzierski, Voloszański publishing home 2006, p. 300.
[2] Peter Trawny, Heidegger and the story of the judaic conspiracy, translated by Lorenzo Warkocki, PWN 2017, p. 77.
Copyright: task Syndicate, 2023. www.project-syncicate.org. From English she translated Catherine the Formers.
